Interactive communication system for downloading large amount data

• US 6,052,715 A
• Filed: 05/13/1997
• Issued: 04/18/2000
• Est. Priority Date: 05/16/1996
• Status: Expired due to Fees

• Current Assignee: Hanger Solutions, LLC (IP Investments Group LLC)
• Original Assignee: Casio Computer Company Limited
• Inventors: Fukui, Takayoshi, Miyake, Masayasu
• Primary Examiner(s): FLYNN, NATHAN J
• Application Number:
  US08/855,455
• Time in Patent Office: 1,071 Days
• Field of Search: 348/6, 348/7, 348/10, 348/12, 348/13, 455/3.1, 455/3.2, 455/4.1, 455/4.2, 455/6.1, 455/6.2, 455/5.1, 709/217-219
• US Class Current: 725/114
• CPC Class Codes: H04H 20/28 Arrangements for simultaneous broadcast of plural pieces of information
• CPC Class Codes: H04H 20/38 Arrangements for distribution where lower stations, e.g. receivers, interact with the broadcast
• CPC Class Codes: H04H 20/76 Wired systems
• CPC Class Codes: H04H 20/93 which locates resources of other pieces of information, e.g. URL [Uniform Resource Locator]
• CPC Class Codes: H04H 60/06 Arrangements for scheduling broadcast services or broadcast-related services
• CPC Class Codes: H04H 60/12 wherein another information is substituted for the portion of broadcast information
• CPC Class Codes: H04H 60/40 for identifying broadcast time
• CPC Class Codes: H04H 60/90 Wireless transmission systems
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/235 Processing of additional data, e.g. scrambling of additional data or processing content descriptors
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/2351 involving encryption of additional data arrangements using cryptography for the use of broadcast information or broadcast-related information H04H60/23
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/4782 Web browsing , e.g. WebTV
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/6112 involving terrestrial transmission, e.g. DVB-T
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/6181 involving transmission via a mobile phone network arrangements for providing broadcast or conference services to substation in data switching networks in combination with wireless systems H04L12/189; wireless uplink channel access H04W74/004
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 7/17318 Direct or substantially direct transmission and handling of requests

Abstract

An information terminal transmits small amount data such as a command to a Web server on the internet to an asymmetric router via an interactive radio network. The asymmetric router transmits the command to the Web server via the internet. The asymmetric router transmits large amount data (for example, HTML formatted browser data) from the Web server to a data superimposing broadcast apparatus. The data superimposing broadcast apparatus determines a scheduled time of broadcasting according to a data amount. The scheduled time is transmitted to the information terminal via the asymmetric router and the interactive radio network. When the scheduled time comes, the large amount data is superimposed on an empty portion of a television signal, and is broadcasted. The information terminal carries out a predetermined processing operation whereby a broadcast receiving circuit is turned on, and the television signal on which the large amount data has been superimposed is received. The received data then can be displayed in a display device and the like. Therefore, even in a portable information terminal, it is possible to provide an interactive communication system which can transmit large amount data at a high speed.

Claims

1. A data communication system comprising:

an interactive communication system in which data is transmitted/received between a host server and a terminal;

a large amount data transmitting system for unidirectionally transmitting a large amount of data from the host server to said terminal; and

a data supplying apparatus for supplying data to be transmitted to said terminal to said interactive communication system when an amount of the data is less than a predetermined amount, and for supplying the data to be transmitted to said terminal to said large amount data transmitting system when the amount of the data is larger than the preset amount;

wherein said large amount data transmitting system comprises;

(i) storage means for temporarily storing large amount data supplied by the data supplying apparatus;

(ii) a timer for determining a scheduled transmission timing; and

(iii) transmitting means for transmitting the large amount data stored in said storage means to the terminal at the scheduled transmission timing.

2. The communication system according to claim 1, wherein said transmitting means of said large amount data transmitting system comprises a broadcasting system for broadcasting a television signal, and means for superimposing the large amount data to be transmitted to said terminal on said television signal so that the large amount data is broadcasted to the terminal.

3. The communication system according to claim 1, wherein:

said large amount data transmitting system further comprises means for supplying data indicating the scheduled transmission timing to said terminal via said interactive communication system; and

said terminal comprises means for receiving the data indicating the scheduled transmission timing, and means for turning on a receiving circuit at the scheduled transmission timing so that the terminal may receive the large amount data transmitted by said large amount data transmitting system.

4. The communication system according to claim 1, wherein:

said large amount data transmitting system comprises a plurality of data transmitting devices which are located in respective predetermined areas; and

said data supplying apparatus comprises means for detecting a position of the terminal and means for supplying the data to be transmitted to the terminal to a data transmitting device located in an area corresponding to the position of said terminal.

5. The communication system according to claim 1, wherein:

said data supplying apparatus performs a predetermined encryption using a predetermined encrypting key relative-to the large amount data supplied to said large amount data transmitting system; and

said terminal includes means for decrypting encrypted large amount data transmitted by said large amount data transmitting system using the predetermined encrypting key.

6. The communication system according to claim 5, wherein said terminal obtains the predetermined encryption key via said interactive communication system prior to a reception of the encrypted large amount data.

7. The communication system according to claim 1, wherein said interactive communication system and said terminal perform a predetermined encryption using a predetermined encrypting key relative to small amount data to be transmitted/received, and the encrypted small amount data is decrypted using the predetermined encrypting key.

8. The communication system according to claim 1, wherein:

said host server comprises a plurality of internet servers for providing an HTML formatted file; and

said data supplying apparatus browses the HTML formatted file provided by a predetermined internet server according to a command supplied from said terminal via said interactive communication system, and converts the HTML formatted file into display format data which is transmitted to said large amount data transmitting system.

9. The communication system according to claim 4, wherein:

said large amount data transmitting system transmits communication information indicating a type of interactive communication device which can be used in each area by said terminal; and

said terminal selects a specific interactive communication device to be used according to the communication information transmitted by said large amount data transmitting system.

10. The communication system according to claim 1, wherein:

said large amount data transmitting system transmits an identification code for specifying the terminal to receive the large amount data; and

said terminal determines whether or not the identification code provided by said large amount data transmitting system corresponds to a preset identification code of the terminal, and enables the large amount data to be received only if a correspondence is detected.

11. The communication system according to claim 1, wherein:

said terminal supplies position information indicative of a present position of the terminal to said interactive communication system at a predetermined timing;

said data supplying apparatus transmits the position information via said interactive communication system to said large amount data transmitting system; and

said large amount data transmitting system comprises a plurality of transmitting antennas each having a different directivity, so that the large amount data may be selectively transmitted from a given one of the data transmission antennas having a directivity corresponding to said position information.

12. The communication system according to claim 1, wherein said interactive communication system comprises a base station connected to the terminal via a radio channel and a wired network connected between the base station and the host server.

13. The communication system according to claim 1, wherein said interactive communication system comprises means for transmitting a data request from the terminal to the host server.